Relations between Turkey and the European Union were suspended for most of the 1970s and 1980s for several reasons: the military coup of 1971, the Cyprus intervention of 1974 and the military coup of 1980, which closed down political parties and trade unions and imprisoned many people on political grounds. Eventually, the EU summit held in Helsinki in December 1999 made a historic decision. Turkey was officially designated “a candidate country destined to join the union on the basis of the same criteria applied to the other candidate countries”.
This decision served to postpone Turkey’s membership for an indefinite period of time. The coalition government led by Bülent Ecevit prepared a national programme to implement the short and long-term reforms demanded by the EU, and in summer 2002, Parliament passed several constitutional amendments and other laws to ensure further compliance with the Copenhagen criteria.
Ankara began negotiations to join the 27-nation bloc in 2005, but talks on most of the key issues are presently frozen because of Turkey’s long-standing dispute with EU member Cyprus.
So far, Turkey has completed compliance with EU legislation in only one area – science and research. Talks are now on a slow track after Turkey refused last year to implement a customs union pact with EU member Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognise.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative party previously advocated that Turkey be granted a “privileged partnership” that falls short of membership, a proposal Turkey rejects. The French president, hosting Turkey’s prime minister for the launch of a “Union for the Mediterranean,” reaffirmed in July that Turkey’s bid to become a member of the European Union will continue unhindered under his country’s presidency of the 27-nation bloc.
At the meeting Recep Tayyip Erdođan urged Nicolas Sarkozy, considered by the Turks as a staunch opponent of Turkey’s membership in the European Union, to remain loyal to the membership pledges given to Ankara. He said in response that France would continue to work to ensure the accession talks will continue at a normal pace, according to a French source close to the meeting. Erdođan also invited Sarkozy to visit Turkey to help improve dialogue between Ankara and the EU.
Recently, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Turkey would play an active role in France’s Mediterranean initiative. “We think it will promote peace, stability and development in the region, and Turkey supports this initiative,” he said.
Sarkozy has been outspoken about his objections to Turkish EU membership. However, special envoys of the French government had been sent to Ankara to give assurances that the project is no longer perceived as an alternative to the country’s EU membership. France said the Mediterranean Union is no longer a French idea but an EU project and as such it would have been detrimental for Turkey to stay away from it.
Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who met in Paris earlier this summer, insisted the idea of a union of Mediterranean countries modeled on, but not part of, the EU was not an attempt to appease Turkey. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has stated that he opposed Turkey’s EU membership, has floated the idea of a “Mediterranean Union” but said recently the proposal was not meant as a consolation prize for Turkey if the Muslim nation should lose its bid to join the EU.
Many Turks are suspicious that the principle reason their country has remained excluded from the EU has to do with European fears of and prejudices against Muslims
The Turkish press frequently lambastes those who it says wish to keep the EU as an exclusively Christian club. Some also acknowledge that they perceive the Bosphorus waterway as marking not only a geographical divide between Europe and Asia but also a fundamental cultural frontier as well.
EU members have also expressed reservations about Turkey’s human rights record. Amnesty International and Helsinki Watch, two human rights monitoring organisations supported by the EU, have reported the persistence of practices such as arbitrary arrests, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture in prisons, and censorship. The Turkish Human Rights Association, itself subject to harassment and intimidation tactics, has prepared detailed chronologies and lists of human rights abuses, including the destruction of entire villages without due process, and has circulated these reports widely in Europe.
The documented reports of human rights abuses, like the coup rumours, sustained questions about Turkey’s qualifications to join a collective body of countries that have striven to achieve uniform standards for protecting citizen rights.
I form part of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, within the European Union. I have been involved and have followed this issue with great interest. I was in the thick of the action when negotiating and promoting European Union Membership and I can therefore understand how difficult it may be for a country like Turkey to meet all the criteria, and persuade all other members.
The European Union is a community that is ready to listen to one and all. It is a community where dialogue between different countries is a key. However, every country must reach the criteria, many a time with efforts, as we did, to be part of this prosperous family.
David Casa is a Nationalist Member of the European Parliament and forms part of the delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee.
david@davidcasa.eu
www.davidcasa.eu
